DAVIS HOLDING UP IMPLEMENTATION OF MEDICAL POT

The California Supreme Court last week tidied up one small corner of the
medical marijuana mess. It ruled that state voters meant what they said in
1996 when they legalized pot use by seriously ill people who've got
authorization from their doctors.

Now, with the court having done its job, it falls to Gov. Davis to clean up
the rest of the confusion about implementing the notoriously fuzzy
Proposition 215, the medical marijuana measure.

The court's decision came in the case of a diabetic, blind Tuolumne County
man who was arrested for growing and using marijuana under a doctor's order.

In an opinion by Chief Justice Ronald George, the court ruled that
Proposition 215 gives people arrested for medical marijuana use or
cultivation limited immunity from prosecution.

The court ruled that patients have a right to seek dismissal of the charges
against them prior to trial by showing that they are seriously ill and have
a doctor's written or oral prescription for marijuana. And if a case moves
to trial, patients need only create reasonable doubt about whether they had
been prescribed marijuana in appropriate amounts. "As a result of
(Proposition 215), the possession and cultivation of marijuana is no more
criminal -- so long as its conditions are satisfied -- than the possession
and acquisition of any prescription drug with a physician's prescription,"
the court found.

Unfortunately, that sensible reading of voters' intent isn't sufficient by
itself to clear up the confusion that surrounds the implementation of
Proposition 215. For one thing, marijuana use is still against federal law,
and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft seems determined to use scarce
federal resources to go after patients and doctors in states where voters
have approved medical marijuana.

Another problem for law enforcement is identifying which people qualify for
medical marijuana and how much of the drug they can reasonably possess.

The Legislature is ready to put in place a reasonable regulatory scheme to
deal with those questions.

Senate Bill 187, by Sens. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, and Maurice
Johannessen, R-Redding, would set up a system of voluntary identification
cards for patients authorized to use marijuana and establish by regulation
the amount of the drug they could possess without danger of arrest.

Unfortunately, the bill, which is supported by the backers of Proposition
215 and law enforcement, has been held in the Senate on account of the
governor, who told the author in September that he needed more time to
study the issue.

Davis now has had nearly a year to bone up, but a spokesman for the
governor last week again described the bill as "premature." In fact, this
kind of measure is badly overdue. The Supreme Court and the Legislature
have done their duty to make Proposition 215 workable; it's time for the
governor to do his.